Flipside Studio update 2023.1.6 - AI Script Creator, 100 Avatars asset pack and more!

- by Rachael

📜 AI Script Creator Beta

Do you need inspo developing a script for your #MadeInFlipside creation? The new AI Script Creator (beta) tool is here to help! Describe the premise, how many characters you’re working with, and the content style, and the AI Script Creator will develop a script you can load in the teleprompter! 

We know you’ll have a blast!

📣 Celebrate Your Creativity

We want to see how you use the AI Script Creator (beta)! Enter to win a $100 Amazon gift card when you use the AI Script Creator to generate a script and record a piece of content using that script in Flipside Studio.

Details:

  • Deadline: July 9, 2023 at 11:59PM CST
  • Upload your submission at www.flipsidexr.com/contests
  • One winner will receive a $100 Amazon gift card.

We’re excited to see what you create using the AI Script Creator (beta)!

👽 New characters!

Your favorite VR avatars are now in Flipside Studio! We’ve integrated some of the go-to avatars from the 100 Avatars asset pack for you to create with.



🚀 New set and props!

Get your sci-fi on and explore everywhere with the new Command Deck set. New props are also included in this update and they're perfectly paired with this new set!



🔖 What’s included in this Flipside Studio update?

AI Script Creator (beta): Describe the situation and the style you’re looking for and let the AI Script Creator (beta) develop a script for you. This new tool is powered by OpenAI’s ChatGPT and you’ll find it in the teleprompter in the main menu of Flipside Studio. 

New characters, set, and props: Use the uploaded characters from the 100 Avatars asset pack in the Command Deck set, along with new sci-fi props in your creations!

Bug fixes and improvements: 

  • Improvements to characters’ posture while sitting
  • Fixes to character rotation issues when playing back a recording
  • Fix to issues with loading project scripts in a multiplayer session

Read our release notes here.

Thanks to everyone who notified us of bugs! 
CLICK HERE TO FILE A BUG REPORT 🐛

Thanks to everyone who shared feature requests! We love the ideas!
MAKE A FEATURE REQUEST 💡

🔌 Connect with community

We’d love to welcome you to the Flipside Studio Community Discord channel where you can connect with other creators, share your #MadeInFlipside creations, submit feature requests, and share bug reports.

Join the Community


 

Flipside Studio 2023.1.4 - AI-generated sets, a throne room, and coloured lights!

- by Rachael

We're back with a new set fit for a king or queen plus, new coloured spot lights, and the ability to create with AI-generated sets (and more!).

🤖 AI Set Creator Beta

Previously we’ve shared how AI can help with creating scripts and voices to assist with your creative process. Now we’ve officially brought AI into Flipside Studio with the new AI set creator (beta)! With this tool you can describe a set, choose an art style, and watch it appear around you. AI-generated sets are 360 panoramic images and are saved to your imported sets so you can use them again and again.

Don’t forget to share with #MadeInFlipside so we can marvel at your creativity!


🎭 Creator Jam

Thanks to everyone who joined us last weekend for the Flipside Studio Creator Jam! The Creator Jam continues all week and through to Sunday, May 28 so there’s still time to join!

Read all about the Flipside Studio Creator Jam and the first prize here:   https://www.flipsidexr.com/creator-jam

📍New set!

The newest set is here! Create like a King or Queen in the new Throne Room set that’s ready for you in the Flipside Studio app!

🙌 Celebrate Your Creativity

We love seeing what you #MadeInFlipside! Thanks to @StricklyImmersive for using Flipside Studio for your multi-part series on YouTube! We love the inclusion of so many characters and the creative set you’re using.

🔖 What’s included in this Flipside Studio update?

AI set creator (beta): Describe a set, choose an art style, and watch it appear around you. AI-generated sets are 360 panoramic images and are saved to your imported sets so you can use them again and again. Find the new AI set creator (beta) in the Imported category of the Sets menu. 

Voice input: We’ve added a voice input button on the virtual keyboard so you can input data just by talking.

Coloured spotlights: You’ll find red, yellow, and blue lights added to the Show Tools category.

You'll also find other bug fixes and improvements in this update!

Read our release notes here.

Thanks to everyone who notified us of bugs! 
CLICK HERE TO FILE A BUG REPORT 🐛

Thanks to everyone who shared feature requests! We love the ideas!
MAKE A FEATURE REQUEST 💡

🔌 Connect with community

We’d love to welcome you to the Flipside Studio Community Discord channel where you can connect with other creators, share your #MadeInFlipside creations, submit feature requests, and share bug reports.

Join the Community


 

Flipside Studio 2023.1.3

- by Rachael

More new features, a new set, and the ability to upload visuals directly to your slideshow!

📹Sharing Tutorial

This is our most requested tutorial so we’re sharing it again. You can also find this tutorial in our in-app help menu! Learn how to get your content out of Flipside Studio so you can share it on social media, in presentations, and more!

🎉Celebrate your creativity!

Don’t forget to use #MadeInFlipside when you share online and tag @flipsidexr so we can give you a shout out! Thank you to Twitter user @7irovoice for sharing - we love seeing what you create!

📍New set!

We’re setting the stage with the newest Flipside Studio update! You’ll find a new Lounge set ready for you in the app! 🎤


👋User Feature

ChatGPT is a unique tool to develop scripts and creative ideas! ⌨️

WhatEver Films & Photography used ChatGPT artificial intelligence to write out the entire script and story of “Sense of Adventure.” They used Flipside Studio to turn the script into a video, which they shared on YouTube. 

How will you use AI to develop script ideas?

🔖What’s included in this Flipside Studio update?

Prop locking: This new feature allows users to lock props, making set dressing much easier.

Camera settings:  Your camera speed, movement, and shake settings are now reflected in Flipside Broadcaster.

Upload visuals to use in your slideshow:  You can now upload your slideshow photos and videos directly to a project through the Creator Portal!

Read our release notes here.

Thanks to everyone who notified us of bugs! 
CLICK HERE TO FILE A BUG REPORT 🐛

Thanks to everyone who shared feature requests! We love the ideas!
MAKE A FEATURE REQUEST 💡

🔌Connect with community

We’d love to welcome you to the Flipside Studio Community Discord channel where you can connect with other creators, share your #MadeInFlipside creations, submit feature requests, and share bug reports.

Join the Community


Tags: Flipside Studio   Content creators   Sets and props   Professional production tools   Character customization   Readyplayer.me   Motion capture   Scene layering   Collaboration   Worldwide   App testing   Creator feedback   Social media sharing   Flipsidexr   MadeInFlipside   Virtual production   Interactive storytelling   Animated content   3D animation   Creative tools   Virtual sets   Online collaboration   Content creation   Immersive experiences   Virtual reality content   User-generated content

 

Flipside Studio 2023.1.2

- by Rachael

A sharing tutorial, new assets, and audio bug squashing!

📹 Sharing Tutorial

You’ve made it, now share it! Learn how to get your content out of Flipside Studio so you can share it on social media, in presentations, and more!

🐶 New assets!

New assets are here! With the newest update of Flipside Studio, you’ll find great new characters and a fun set. 

Give our new "cute pup" character pack a try. We can’t wait to see what you create with four new cute pups and a dog park set! 🐕🐩

👋 User Feature

The Flipside XR team loves seeing what you #MadeInFlipside! Feel free to use the hashtag and tag @FlipsideXR in your creations!

Thanks David aka Democratize XR for this great idea of using real world locations in Flipside Studio! See how he uses lidar scans to create a set to use in the app!

🔖 What’s included in this Flipside Studio update?

Looping audio resolved: If you used the spatial audio setting and heard looping audio, the issue has been resolved!

Ability to delete avatars: If you’ve been creating your own Ready Player Me avatars through the Characters menu, you now have the option of deleting any character you no longer need. 

Stand-in fix: Did you create a character stand-in, but no character showed up? The issue has been fixed and character stand-ins are working properly. 

Read our release notes here.


Thanks to everyone who notified us of bugs! 

CLICK HERE TO FILE A BUG REPORT 🐛

Thanks to everyone who shared feature requests! We love the ideas!
MAKE A FEATURE REQUEST 💡


Connect with community

We’d love to welcome you to the Flipside Studio Community Discord channel where you can connect with other creators, share your #MadeInFlipside creations, submit feature requests, and share bug reports.

Join the Community



 

Flipside Studio is LIVE!

- by Bohdan Hlushko


We’re thrilled to announce Flipside Studio is LIVE in the Meta app store for Meta Quest and Rift/Rift S headsets! 🎉


Content creators can make any room your stage with Flipside Studio! 

Imagine and create your story with fun and imaginative show tools including:

🎬 Sets and props

🎥 Professional production tools

🙋‍♀️ Character customization including @readyplayer.me

🎞 Motion capture and scene layering

👱‍♀️🤝👦🏿 Collaborate with folks worldwide

Thank you to the thousands of creators who have been with us testing the app. Thank you too to our tireless team for all of their hard work and creativity! 😉 We’d love to stay in touch and hear your ongoing feedback about Flipside Studio! Thanks again for your continued support.

We can’t wait to see what you create! If you’re sharing on social, tag us at @flipsidexr and use #MadeInFlipside so we can share your creativity.

Keep creating!


 

The new Flipside Studio is almost here.

- by Bohdan Hlushko

We've been cooking up something special for the past six years, and we're excited to finally share it with you. Flipside Studio is almost here, and we're putting the final touches on this amazing virtual production platform.

For those of you who don't know, Flipside Studio is a one-of-a-kind virtual production tool that lets you create and customize your own animated shows in virtual reality that you can share online. 

We couldn't have done it without the amazing support of our beta testers. Thank you for your valuable feedback and insights, which helped us fine-tune Flipside Studio to be the best it can be. We couldn't have done it without you.

So, sit tight and get ready for the ride of your life. Flipside Studio is coming, and it's going to be a blast! Stay tuned for more updates, and thanks for being part of our journey.


 

Interview with comedian Jordan Cerminara: Using Flipside Studio to deliver value to corporate audiences

- by Starling


Stand-up comedian Jordan has found a way to add value to companies and engage workers, while developing his own skill sets, thanks to virtual technology.

We sat down in Flipside Studio as avatars in a virtual setting to interview Jordan to find out how Flipside Studio has helped him move to the next phase of his career and entertain more corporate client audiences where he isn’t limited to location.

1. Tell me about yourself.

“I'm a standup comedian who started doing that (comedy) about nine years ago,” says Jordan.

Jordan isn’t new to utilizing Flipside Studio, as he’s worked on some prior collaborations.

“I started using Flipside when you (Flipside) reached out to me through some mutual friends about getting involved with Flipside in the Bay Area. You were doing a thing down there and we had a link up and worked on a show together; Earth From Up Here. That was a lot of fun. Since then, we've made a couple of other projects together and worked on some creative collaborations a number of times using Flipside.”

During the pandemic, Jordan witnessed comedians going online. He found a way that he could carve out his own niche in the virtual comedy space. Jordan created a comedy club set design that looks and feels just like a regular club, except it’s online.

“I've been running a little business for myself where I do…remote virtual holiday parties and comedy shows in this set. This is my comedy club that I continue to add to and improve as time goes on.”

“I saw an opportunity to not only put myself into a Zoom meeting with this being my camera's input, you know, the output of a Flipside, but also kind of getting out of self-produced shows and booking myself as a corporate entertainment.” 

Earth From Up Here - Watch it on YouTube

2. Tell me about challenges you've faced as an immersive performer.

“I think a lot of the challenges for me as an immersive performer was embracing being an immersive performer,” says Jordan.

Virtual reality has allowed Jordan to integrate other aspects of his humour into his performances that is more ideal for online performances than in-person setting.

“Some of the stuff that I do on stage in my virtual club, I would be able to do in real life, but it would take so much more planning and infrastructure.”

This has given Jordan an advantage in his field as he provides a unique and layered experience for his corporate clients and their employees. Using Flipside Studio, Jordan is able to live-stream to all of his clients’ employees, reacting and adapting in real-time to their feedback and needs, and providing a show tailored specifically to the client.

“I think a lot of people aren't embracing the fact that you have a lot more to do in here than is readily available to you in a very tough market. I feel like I'm positioned really well to make a new start for comedy in the Metaverse or, you know, whatever we want to call it.”

3. How does Flipside help your show?

“This is a tool that I have right at my fingertips as I'm showing people what I want them to see.”

Jordan is more than a comedian. Utilizing Flipside Studio, he’s learned that he’s fully in control of the experience.

“It's essentially a different skill set than just being a comic. It's also being a producer in the same moment. You're editing your own content in real-time and you're the director. You get to choose what the audience sees.”

Utilizing Flipside Studio, Jordan is bringing the joy back to online meetings and bringing people together. He understands why corporate clients are connecting online for bonding opportunities, although he understands it may be a bit unusual for employees.

“Sometimes maybe some people are like, ‘wow, that was really weird. I can't believe we just got paid to watch a cartoon.’”

“Nobody really wants to be in a Zoom meeting anymore, but I feel like this particular tool for me has made it more enjoyable.”


Les interviewing Jordan in Flipside Studio

4. Are there any specific benefits to using Flipside for immersive performance compared to other VR tools? How has it made your life easier?

For Jordan, there are a lot of benefits that allow him to deliver a show for his clients that creates an elevated experience.

“The biggest thing that sets everything apart is the production value. I mean, there's so much that you can do as a single entity where, you know, if you wanted to film us a sketch and in Flipside, you could do it by yourself. You could record all the parts by yourself and have a motion capture recording of you doing one character, leaving a pause for a potential other line and step in is that person. You could do a full-blown production with a really quality end product by yourself.”

This is just the beginning for Jordan.

“I'm starting to see so many opportunities for the future of what this could be, and it's really an exciting time for me.”

“I can explain myself as a funny person much quicker with all of these tools. I get to pack more of a punch with all these tools, and that's why I love Flipside so much.”


Jordan performing standup live using Flipside Studio

5. Tell me about the immersive performances you've done with Flipside.

While Jordan has a lot of experience utilizing Flipside XR tools for past productions including Earth From Up Here, he’s really found his niche utilizing Flipside Studio to create, host, and produce his interactive, virtual stand-up comedy shows. Offering his comedic services to corporate clients who are looking to engage their employees, Jordan delivers value to companies and joy to employees through his live streams, regardless of how spread-out a company’s workforce is.

For Jordan, his business is expanding and his needs are simple:

“The truth is I'm making more money than I ever have in entertainment, and I don't have to live anywhere. As long as the Wi-Fi is good, home is where the Wi-Fi is good.”

Want to start making your own mocap animation? Click here to learn more about Flipside Studio.

 

Interview with comedian Rodney Ramsey: Using Flipside Studio to create a virtual comedy club

- by Starling


“This is one of the greatest things I’ve ever done, like I’m a live cartoon right now . . . You have to understand how weird it is that I’ve done more stand-up as an avatar than as a real person [in the last year].”

Rodney Ramsey has been doing comedy for 20 years —touring, comedy clubs, festivals. All of those things went away when COVID-19 arrived. Comedians had to take their acts to the virtual space, with most either doing Zoom shows or TikTok videos. Rodney wanted to take a different approach to bring that live/televised comedy show vibe back into the mix, and as someone with VR and production skills, he knew Flipside Studio was the vehicle to do it.

We chatted with Rodney about how hosting comedy in VR has taken his career to new places, making him busier than ever before.

1. Tell me about yourself.

“I was always kind of the class clown and during college, I was bored. Then I did stand-up and it was like, wow, I've never had that much fun. That was it for me,” says Rodney. He started out in Montreal, and after exploring other cities while touring, decided to stay there to build his career.

“All the artists in my industry, they either go to New York or L.A.” Rodney says.  “I'm in this weird, cool artistic thing where everything is supposed to be creative, yet everybody does it the exact same way, which never made any sense. So I said, ‘I'm going to see if I can do this from Montreal.’ And it's been going great.”

Rodney has always taken an experimental approach to comedy, creating different productions to see what lands with his audience. His first production was called The Drunken Show where both the performers and the audience would get drunk (and maybe a little high) and just see what would happen. 

“We still do it, it’s insane.”

He normally averaged around five productions a year before, but since using Flipside Studio and taking his shows into the virtual space, he’s accelerated his production level to the point where he’s done 60 shows this year already.

2. What are your biggest challenges with mo-cap animation? 

“It took me a while to get here, you know what I mean? It's not easy. You really got to either have the knowledge or really want it.” 

Incorporating real-time VR mocap animation into Rodney’s act didn’t happen overnight. Luckily, being a stand-up comedian developed a lot of the skills he needed for production. 

“Stand-up means that you have the tools to do a bunch of things . . . it means you can write, so I write. It means you can act, so I act. It means you can direct, so I try to direct stuff. And you're always editing.”

Those skills, combined with a love for tech, specifically VR, and the COVID lockdown situation led him to create The Unknown Comedy Club with co-founder Daniel Woodrow.

3. How do you use Flipside Studio for real-time VR mocap animation? What made you choose Flipside Studio over other mocap animation options?

“What makes this thing special is the production value . . . people need to feel like it’s television.” 

Rodney hosts The Unknown Comedy Club shows as a cartoon avatar and delivers his stand-up while operating the camera in real time.

“The cartoon looks good. It's super solid. And then I'm like switching cameras real time while telling jokes, man. I'm also morphing into different characters.” 

Rodney is always surprised how quickly people get comfortable with the avatar and don’t even question it.

“I will be sitting at my desk [as an avatar] and I'll pick up coffee and start drinking the coffee. Nobody says anything ever, until I point it out. They're there with you, you know?”

Being into tech, Rodney had the idea to merge VR and stand-up comedy and tried several apps before discovering Flipside. What made Flipside Studio work for him was the real-time mocap animation capabilities, along with the integration with Zoom. It’s now gotten to the point where some people come to the shows just for the avatar.

“They're coming to see the avatars, you know what I mean? They're like, yo, this guy over here, he's doing a show on the moon. There's a supernova happening in the back. You know, it ties it to the punch line. It's crazy.”

Although most of the other comedians performing during the show aren’t performing as avatars—they perform in front of a green screen so Rodney is able to match the backgrounds, the whole production feels a lot more like watching live television than watching a standard Zoom call. 

Doing stand-up comedy using VR mocap animation has made Rodney’s brand of comedy into a niche he occupies with very little competition, but his goal is to bring more comedians into VR.

“I'm looking at it like the avatar show. That's all I want. I want to be able to have a bunch of people do it. If I can collab with a bunch of people who are avatars from wherever they are, that is insane to me.”

4. How does Flipside Studio help you make money?

“We did our first show in January and then we're like, oh my God, that was amazing. The comics were happy. We were happy. The crowd is happy. And when I'm in there, I feel like I'm on stage. I feel like I'm performing in front of a crowd, even though they're in Zoom boxes, like I'm on my stage. I have them in front of me—boom, showtime.”

The next week they did another show, and so on, until they had the hang of the format and wanted to do more with it. Rodney and his co-creator Daniel Woodrow had been doing a comedy tour called the Underground Comedy Railroad, an all black comedy tour, for the last nine years. It had always been in person before, but if they were going to do it this year it would have to be virtual. They had three weeks to pull it together.

“We did a five show tour with Flipside. This is like a huge thing for us because before that we weren’t a club . . . We made more money that weekend, virtually, than we had in the nine years that we've been doing the show, leaving our house.”

With all the comedy clubs shut down during the pandemic, The Unknown Comedy Club has been a way to keep the shows going and not only get paid, but also pay other comedians as well, and Just for Laughs took notice. Rodney is performing more shows at the internationally acclaimed comedy festival this year than ever before.

“Flipside plus Zoom plus a few other things, you know what I mean. Like yeah. Magic.”

5. What have you made using Flipside Studio? Where can we find it online?

Find out when the next Unknown Comedy Club show happens and get your tickets!

Catch Rodney’s act at Just for Laughs and watch out for Rodney's JFL Originals comedy album to be released this fall.

Want to start making your own mocap animation? Click here to learn more about Flipside Studio.

 

How Flipside Studio Opens Up New Possibilities for Creators

- by Starling


“People saw that video and they were like, this is amazing. This is entertaining. How did you do this? That's the reaction I got. So it really was a game-changer,” says Elli Raynai, co-creator of Nourish, a lens used for Snapchat’s most recent Lens Fest. 

Elli discovered Flipside Studio after an assignment to create an educational piece on how to make a decision. As a creator, he wanted it to be fun, engaging and meet his creative standards. After a positive experience and amazing feedback, he jumped on the opportunity to use Flipside Studio again, this time creating a lens for Snapchat with his partner Irem Harnak. 

We had a chat with the two Toronto-based creatives to talk about using mocap animation to create Nourish, overcoming challenges with new projects, and exploring how Flipside’s tools open up new possibilities. “We don't have to limit ourselves. It's really eye-opening, and it's really creative,” adds Irem Harnak, Nourish co-creator. 

1. Tell me about yourself.

“I got into interaction design by creating a VR experience and interactive VR experiences in 2018. I worked on it together with Elli...It was a great experience,” says Irem. 

With backgrounds in photography and filmmaking, Irem and Elli both have a passion for interactive projects.

“In 2014 I moved over into more interactive projects when I discovered VR, more specifically the Oculus Rift, and I decided to make a movie using that technology in particular,” says Elli. “It was a really, really successful project... From there, we kept making more and more VR projects.” 

The duo worked together on interactive VR installation called Made This Way: Redefining Masculinity, a VR project born out of a photo series about masculinity and transgender men that premiered internationally at the 75th Venice International Film Festival in September 2018.

“From that, I started working on different mobile, web and XR projects,” Irem says.

Elli completed an AR residency at Snapchat, where the idea for Nourish, a lens to help people stay fit and motivated, sprouted. He teamed up with Irem once again to combine machine learning, motion capture, 3D and interaction design to help fulfill the vision for the lens, using Flipside Studio.

“When the opportunity came up for doing a lens at Snapchat through the AR residency, I thought, you know, can we use the tool again?” said Elli. “Would this be a great tool to use to get our animations working in Snap?”

2. What are your biggest challenges with mo-cap animation? 

Irem has used other motion capture tools in the past, but found them quite difficult. 

“You have to make sure all the cameras are functioning. Then there are two softwares you're juggling with, the actor needs to be completely there, and you have to do the warm-up exercises,” she explains. ”Then you have to make sure all the markers are positioned properly. Sometimes it doesn't work and then they have to leave the room. So, it was a lot of back and forth.”

In building Nourish, Irem created animations with motion capture where she had to figure out a way for characters to appear, stay there, and then exit the scene. Her biggest challenge was the learning curve in using Tween Manager in Lens Studio and attaching everything with behaviour scripts. 

“Your team helped us by creating a Python script for Blender,” said Elli. “Once we had exported the motion capture data and applied it to the model, it was just a matter of exporting the fbx and then bringing it into Snap Lens Studio.”

Irem explained that due to time constraints, limits with the lockdown, and their limited animation experience, Flipside Studio solved a lot of their obstacles.

“I found Flipside was just so fast,” Irem said. “Even just to get in and then just capture it and then take the stuff out. Just to look at it was quite good compared to what I've seen before.”

3. How do you use Flipside Studio for VR mocap? What made you choose Flipside Studio over other mocap animation options?

Irem was tasked with 3D modeling the characters, but she wasn’t sure where to start.  

“Since Elli already worked with Flipside, we were like, we should really do this because we can have our own custom animations,” says Irem.

They contacted Flipside and worked with our artist to go through the rigging process. Once they had their models, they created short animations for each character. 

“We got really close and personal with the characters,” says Irem. ”So we tried to imagine how they would walk...Elli jumped into VR and I was kind of guiding him, directing him, telling him, OK, go this way, move that way. We captured really short clips and then we brought them into the software to see how it's reacting.” 

It was important that each custom character had their own dance, fun movements and energy.  

“Animation gives life to the characters, says Irem. “And we really did it just playing in this little room.”

“I think that the speed that you can prototype, how you can get ideas across with tools like Flipside are like night and day,” says Elli. 

4. How does Flipside Studio make mocap easier?

“It opens up possibilities for us. Even though we don't know how to do things, that doesn't stop us from doing things. But feeling like there is a tool that empowers us to go ahead, and whatever we think about, whatever characters we want to animate, we can animate,” says Elli. “The sky's the limit in terms of what kind of projects we can work on.”

Elli and Irem were able to create their project in their small home studio. Flipside Studio gave them an affordable option to create unique characters that they couldn’t have accomplished themselves. 

“We wanted to put our own spin, our own style, our own imprint on these characters,” says Elli. “And we would have never been able to do that without Flipside.”

The two agreed that having to use very little equipment made things a lot easier for them. 

“It made us feel very empowered that we could with very little equipment, you know, a headset and computer, we were able to do something that was impossible,” said Elli. “I think that's what was impressive with Flipside. You get speed, and you get quality at a fraction of the cost.” 

5. What have you made using Flipside Studio? Where can we find it online?

Elli’s thought piece on how to make a decision can be found here.

Learn more about Irem and Elli’s Snapchat lens, Nourish, on YouTube. 

Find out more about Elli and Irem.

Want to start making your own mocap animation? Click here to learn more about Flipside Studio.

 

Flipside Studio 2021.1 introduces motion capture export, video renderer, stand-ins, and more

- by Lux

Flipside Studio

We're excited to finally take the wraps off of the new version of Flipside Studio, which includes a number of major improvements and new features.

This is also the first version of Flipside Studio to offer paid subscription plans for added functionality. All of the existing functionality of Flipside Studio remains free for everyone, but the watermark removal and some of the new features below will be paid-only.

Visit our pricing page to learn more.

Motion capture data export

Flipside Studio 2021.1 adds the ability to export motion capture data, making Flipside Studio the easiest way to record multiplayer motion capture sessions for use in any animation software or video game. Motion capture data can be exported in the following ways:

  1. Raw BVH files for use anywhere
  2. Unity animations, imported via Flipside Creator Tools
  3. Blender animations, imported via a new Flipside plugin for Blender

How it works is you record your characters with just your VR headset and controllers, and Flipside Studio exports the full-body character movements. If you have Vive Trackers, you can also do full-body motion capture!

Note: Motion capture data export is a paid feature.

Video renderer

Flipside Studio 2021.1 adds a powerful new video renderer for exporting footage of your Flipside Studio recordings.


Features include:

  • Capture multiple cameras in one render pass
  • Queue multiple renders to run back-to-back
  • Resolutions: 180 (Preview), 720, 1080, 2K, 4K
  • Output formats:
    • PNG or EXR image sequence
    • MP4 video
    • WAV audio (separate tracks for each actor)
    • Depth map
  • Adjustable frame rate
  • Adjustable video encoding settings
  • Adjustable anti-aliasing settings

Note: The video renderer is a paid feature.

Improved movement retargeting

Retargeting is the process of converting an actor's movement to the shape and dimensions of the character. Flipside Studio's retargeting system was rewritten from scratch for 2021.1 and the result is a massive improvement to the way characters move.

In our old retargeting system, the larger the difference there was between the actor and the character's dimensions, the less natural their movement would feel. In the new system, actors still control characters just by moving their bodies, but the movement of the character is more true to the character's dimensions. This means the actor and character hands won't always line up, but what the cameras see will be more accurate and look better.

The new retargeting system should be applied automatically, but if your character's movements feel off, you may need to recalibrate to fix it.

Introducing stand-ins

We've added a new feature we call stand-ins which adds the ability to freeze your character poses so they can be used as stand-in references when setting up your shots, and as actor marks during your shoot. Point your teleporter at a stand-in and your teleporter will lock onto it. Teleport into it and you'll automatically teleport to your mark for the shoot and change into the right character too if you weren't already.

And just like Flipside's current actor mark props, you can move them to adjust their positions or remove them individually by grabbing them in Set Builder mode.

While this feature is experimental, you'll find it on the underside of the Characters palette under the Stand-Ins heading. Press the Pose button and you'll be given a 3-second countdown. At the end of the countdown, a stand-in will appear for each user who's in character at the time.

Other improvements

  • Flipside Studio now supports full-hand tracking using the Valve Index controllers.
  • Ambient Occlusion can now be enabled under Settings > Output for improved lighting and shadows. Note that there is a performance cost to enabling Ambient Occlusion.
  • There's a new Microphone tab in the settings which includes several new features to fine-tune Flipside's voice recording and lip-syncing, including:
    • Lip sync gain to amplify your voice for more exaggerated lip-syncing
    • Lip sync noise gate to filter out unwanted background noise
    • Compression settings including attack time, threshold, compression ratio, and compression gain
    • Option to specify whether compression applies only to the recorded voice, only to lip-sync input, or both
  • The teleprompter now supports a few additional character sets, including Greek, Cyrillic, Thai, and Tamil. More will be added in future updates.

Flipside Creator Tools

In addition to the new BVH to Unity animation converter that works alongside the new motion capture data export feature of Flipside Studio, we've also added the following new features to the Flipside Creator Tools:

FaceMirror lets you animate faces on anything

This release introduces a new FaceMirror component that lets you animate faces on non-character objects in sets, such as props or otherwise inanimate objects.

We've included an example scene under FlipsideCreatorTools/Examples/Example-FaceMirror where you can see how it works and how it's setup. Just attach a FaceMirror to any object, then attach additional FacialExpressionReference components to power the elements of the disembodied face.

FaceMirror-powered faces work over multiplayer in Flipside Studio and can be recorded and played back complete with recorded voices.

More sophisticated animated expressions

We've added a new character expression type called AnimationParameters, which lets you control Unity animation parameters to achieve more sophisticated animated expressions.

Publish directly in Unity

You can now publish your custom characters and sets to Flipside Studio directly in Unity through a unified "Build & Publish" button in the Flipside Creator Tools window. This helps reduce iteration time and eliminates the need to hunt down your bundle files or open a separate browser window, enabling one-click publishing. Just reload the character or set in Flipside Studio to see your changes instantly in VR.

Click here to download the latest version of the Flipside Creator Tools 2021.1.

 

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